September 06, 2012

the HAND TREE -Hand Art- 4rth grade

So... I am excited to catch up and post all of the last 4 months of art projects. I was so tired by the end of the school year trying to finish up so many projects that I didn't even have the spec of desire to post them- probably due to the fact that I pay for high-speed, but don't actually have it... So posting them takes longer than it should. Blah.

Yay! Here is another wonderful collaborative HAND ART project that I made up for the 4rth-graders. They get to "leave their mark" before they head over to middle school next year as 5th-graders.

Materials Needed:

hands to trace!

thick card stock

acrylic paint

brushes

Mod Podge

pre-painted (acrylic) background of a tree on a pre-stretched canvas or a wood board (similar to the ones I make for all of my school projects- go here to see "How to make your own WOOD CANVAS").

Here's how we did it:

Each of the kids traced and cut out their hands on card stock.

Then they drew with pencil their design and then painted their hand with acrylic. (Help: I find if they don't draw it first with pencil and go straight to painting it turns into a paint mess)

They look so bright and a blast of colors! Each hand is soooo unique!

We let them dry overnight and then flattened hands in books for 24 hours.

I started to adhere one group by group of hands with Mod Podge (apply Mod Podge to the canvas not the hands), then laid plastic wrap on top of hands, and then books on top to keep them flattened. It takes about 20+ minutes to safely dry and go on to the next group of hands.

The finish will be shinny and a little bumpy from the plastic wrap. Try to flatten out before placing books on top and drying.

Add an overall coat of Mod Podge to seal and protect the artwork.

Seeing the kids examine and find their own hand and screaminglike crazies,makes it all worth my time...

oh hands...

The best concept about my elementary school projects is that you can make smaller versions of them at home with your kids or adapt them to any group of persons!